December 09, 2011

Earlier this year, I traveled to our nation’s capital to attend salesforce.com’s cloudforce event – we’re an @AppExchange partner and their venues are amazing for our pipeline so we participate in as many as possible.

We de-planed our JetBlue flight and headed to baggage claim to grab one garment bag – mine. Of course, when things go wrong with business travel, they go really wrong. I stood there staring at an empty carousel.

I found the JetBlue office and spoke to a very nice gentleman who had me manually complete a claim ticket, handed me my receipt and proceeded to tell me that the bag should be on one of the next planes. Despite the simple and elegant onboarding process for selling tickets, so far nothing in the JetBlue “lost luggage service model” was agile, mobile, or social except, of course, for my garment bag.

As we raced across the terminal to grab a train, I told our “Gen Y” sales guy about the episode to which he simply replied…“tweet it.” So as we rode the escalator up to the platform, I pulled out my @BlackBerry and did just that. I received a direct response from JetBlue customer service asking me to “follow” so that they could help. I did so and before we could reach our stop at the convention center they were on it:

@JetBlue: Looks like you've contacted the right people @ DCA. They will call you with any new info. Or you can call them 703-xxx-1212 ext xxxxxxxx

My correspondence with JetBlue was amazingly quick and real time. Their systems, ironically deployed within the Salesforce service cloud, worked flawlessly – that is, until the process was handed to their 3rd party delivery company.

I’ve been told I’m type A so as the afternoon turned to early evening, and early evening to late, I became less convinced my suit was going to make it. I began to imagine greeting Mr. Benioff in my AC/DC t-shirt, jeans and flip-flops. Right or wrong, I sent the following tweet, including JetBlue CEO David Barger:

@DavidJBarger: @TomScontras Apologies for the service failure; have copied @JetBlueCOO @JetBlue to provide assistance w/ #DCA lost luggage.

Needless to say, I got my bag.

I have the privilege of traveling the country and speaking to various organizations about social selling and service. It always strikes me when people ask if social networks will truly ever play a role within b2b.

I do my best to explain that today’s customers have options – they are no longer relegated to call an organization to gather information on a product or to be helped. Instead, they engross themselves in real time conversations, through various business and social networks, engaging sales or services organizations as part of their own process – at any time, from any device and never hesitating to outwit, or simply avoid theirs.

I’m not sure why some organizations can’t figure this out. Although as I book my travel to this month’s @Dreamforce event in San Francisco, I know one thing: JetBlue has.

October 26, 2010

Recently, a great review of Glance for tech support appeared in Brian Friedlander' blog, Assistive Technology. Brian is a well-known Mind Mapping and Educational Technology Consultant at AssistiveTek, LLC, Associate Professor at College of St. Elizabeth, and a long-time Glance customer.

"During the course of a week, I am spending more and more of my time working with teachers, providing them with professional development on various assistive technologies that can be implemented in the classroom.

For many of the teachers that I work with this is their first encounter with many of the assistive technologies that are being introduced. Not being on site, I often leave access to software guides and reference materials on my Google Site for the teachers to access- should they need help. There are those times when these materials are not enough to pinpoint a particular issue and technical support is needed.

Just last week I received an email from a middle school teacher who was puzzled why the software was not working as she had anticipated. Rather than emails going back and forth, I set up a time for her to speak with me as well as a link where I could see and remotely control her screen. As part of my services to schools, I offer "Just in Time Training and Support." Using Glance, an easy to use screen sharing tool, I was able to email the teacher a link so that when we spoke I could see her screen and take control of her computer.

Once we connected on the cell phone and I started the session I was able to see the teachers screen and she was able to walk me through the steps so that I could see the process. While doing the screen sharing - the teacher realized that she had left out a step which could explain why the program did not work as expected. We quickly went through a new scenario and added the missed step and all of the issues were quickly resolved. What would have taken weeks to solve was handled in 5 minutes using Glance.

Glance has become an indispensable tool which I use for doing webinars and for providing on the spot technical support. If you are looking for "Just in Time Technical Support" for your assistive technology program,

let me know, and I would be glad to send you a proposal. In the end the teacher was up in running in minutes and now is confidently going back into the classroom and using the software with her students. Without this support the teacher would have put the software aside until I had our next scheduled training session."

September 28, 2010

What happened to the "0" button on your phone? I mean, it's still there. But in the last few decades, it has lost some of its swagger. It used to be so revered that many referred to it with a sense of wonder. Instead of "zero," they'd say "Oh."

Nowadays we want the "0" button to mean "Out" as in "Get me out of this menu-driven system!"

Call most companies - a credit card company, cable company, or an insurance company. You'll hear a pleasant voice welcoming you to waste 3 minutes to get the answer you wanted; you know, to better serve you. OK. They don't say "waste." They invite you to press more buttons. "Well," you say, "I just pressed 10 buttons to get here. How many more do I have to press to get what I need?"

And then you say, "0 no, I'm not!" So you don't listen to the menu options. Instead you hit the 0 button. Sometimes you get a human, like in the old days when hitting the 0 button connected you to a human operator. That's what you miss. And really, you don't care if this person has the answer you want, you just want to talk to someone. Support should not be like a vague vending machine: Press 1 if want something salty. Press 2 if you want something sweet.

But wait. Or rather, don't wait. For those in search of the answer from a real live human, I'd like to point you to one of my favorite sites that helps you get a human on the phone. Logically, you'll find it at www.gethuman.com.

You'll see that sometimes all it really takes is a matter of hitting the 0 button. Sometimes you have to hit 00000. Sometimes you have to wait for the prompt. So even in a menu-driven world, there are faster ways to reach a human. When you finally do, then you can feel like "Number 1."

-- Jorge Mestre, Tech Support Manager, Glance Networks

>> Savvy Call Center Managers have their Agents use Glance to quickly diagnose customer problems and fix them on the spot. Try free today.

Joking aside, the "British politeness factor" seems to be borne out in market research: in a recent poll carried out by international marketing
company GMI, more than 25,000 people from 35 countries ratedUK citizens to be "the most polite and best educated".

A customer of ours, Bill Boardman, was using Glance's screen sharing tool to collaborate with a colleague, sharing CAD drawings. Bill was using Glance to view his guest’s screen, and called to report a problem viewing some of his colleague’s images. Debby, one of our fabulous engineers, got on the phone with Bill. Debby got Bill’s guest on the phone, changed a setting, and voila, all fixed.

In Debby's words, "There was nothing new there – most support issues we deal with are minor and readily fixed with a few minutes on the phone.

"The remarkable thing was that from the start, Bill was amazingly cheerful and seemed to genuinely enjoy the process of picking up the phone and talking to a human being. We had a great conversation and while Bill came away with a solution to his problem, I came away with a glimpse into his design work, a recommendation for a new car (Subaru diesel), and a big smile on my face.

"As soon as I got off the phone our CEO, Rich Baker, who had overheard my half of the phone call, asked: 'Brit?'"

How could he tell? We’ve noticed around here that our transatlantic customers just seem to always be having a blast and it’s a lot of fun to take their calls. In fact, Bill's first words when we answered the phone were, "Is this the wonderful Glance Networks of Boston, Massachusetts?!"

Wow. Can we learn something here?

My guess is that Bill started off his tech support call assuming he had a decent chance of getting his question answered; and his cheerful tone and words reflected that presumption. Consequently, we responded with stepped-up enthusiasm (and here at Glance, we're pretty enthusiastic to start with!), determined to fulfill Bill's request, no matter what. See how that works?

What we learned from that interaction with Bill was this:

1) For consumers requiring support: Throw out the baggage you've acquired from previous unsatisfactory customer service experiences and be optimistic about your next call. Let your words and tone to the service rep who answers your call, reflect that. See if the service rep responds similarly.

2) For businesses giving support: Answer calls with human beings (and cheerful ones at that) instead of letting it go into the queue - if we're asking consumers to go out on a limb and be cheerful, than you've got to do your part by making their customer service experience positive.

Give it a try. What have you got to lose?

So, what does your business do to ensure cheerfulness on both ends of the call?

March 25, 2010

As an entrepreneur, you wake up one day all excited about some oddball idea -- one of those "Wouldn't it be great if..." inspirations.

You look to find a few folks who share your enthusiasm. Together, you work and work and work to get an initial version up and running.

And then... if you're one of the lucky ones... the really big payoff finally happens. Customers you've never met take time out of their day to say something completely unsolicited and remarkably kind about what you created.

We've been fortunate to enjoy that experience many times over here at Glance.

I remember the epiphany Carla had a few days after coming on board to help us with marketing. I had just forwarded another happy customer email to the team. She turned to me and said, "I just can't believe our customers. They simply love Glance! No one ever said they 'loved' the bank I used to work at."

This morning's email box held another delightful gift to us, one that I'd like to share with you. This kind of note really makes our day.

Hi Folks,

When you run a business that really does a good job, people usually don't give you the praise you deserve; they just take you for granted. So, as a small business owner, I thought I'd pass along a quick story.

Our [audio] conference line vendor's service has gotten so bad that we are now forced to find another vendor. Our office manager went looking about for a replacement and ran across one that does both online conferences and telephone conferences so she sent out a company-wide email inviting people to attend a meeting where the prospective vendor would demonstrate their product. She also set off a bit of a firestorm - people were literally *mad* at the idea that someone might even *consider* giving up Glance.

From the supportdept:

"From a support point of view I do not want to lose Glance. If we move away from Glance for conferencing I would want to keep a Glance account for support. It is a great tool which gives me the ability to easily view and control remote computers."

From customersupport:

"I really like glance... why are we considering changing??? We just need a new phone line asap. "

From sales:

"We have no intentions of leaving Glance."

Finally - fromme, trying to calm fears and keep everyone from jumping all over the office manager:

"We're all big fans of Glance so we aren't really considering a change there at this time."

I almost had to laugh at just how strongly people felt about this. I didn't of course, I was too busy calming everyone down. Keep in mind that no one was writing a "testimonial" on behalf of Glance - these were all people just defending their work and speaking from the heart.

February 23, 2010

Customers crave old-fashioned, friendly, and informed service over speed. And there is plenty of evidence that good customer service is positively correlated with a company's financial
performance.

In a recent CRM Today survey of 2,000 consumers in the U.S and the U.K., nearly half (49%) said
poor service led them to change service providers in at least one
industry over the past year.

Here is my own recent Case Study of bad customer service....

I recently moved and needed to transfer my Internet service. Should be simple, right? Then why did I dread making the phone call? Although the Account Executive was very friendly, he was unable to make the simple service switch without the aide of a supervisor and 45 minute hold time for me. At the end of the call, he promised me all I needed to do was plug in my modem and it would all magically work. Right. (Sound familiar?)

Skeptical, I went home and plugged in the modem only to find that the magic had not happened. I sighed and uttered a naughty word as I reached to contact my ISP via phone....again. After being disconnected from the call 3 times, and with a total wait time of 23 minutes, I finally reached a "technical expert". He informed me he needed to flip a switch to "talk" to my modem and then asked me to reboot my Mac. I told him I did not want to reboot my computer as I knew it was unnecessary (being in a technical field myself). He tried to convince me otherwise. It felt like he was following a scripted checklist, instead of listening to the me. He argued further with me and only stopped when I told him my Internet access was back up.

Unfortunately, I was reminded how difficult it is to find a company with easy customer service these days! Here at Glance, we stick to 10 principles of customer service, and have received rave reviews about how we consistently exceed expectations, which translates into loyal customers and word-of-mouth sales:

Be a good listener. Take the time to identify customer needs by asking questions and concentrating on what the customer is really saying. Don't make assumptions.

Identify and anticipate their needs. Customers don't buy products or services. They buy good feelings and solutions to problems.

Make customers feel important and appreciated. Treat them as individuals. Always use their name and find ways to compliment them, but be sincere.

Help customers understand your technology in as simple a way as possible. Your company may have the world's best technology, but if customers don't understand it, they may get confused and impatient.

Appreciate the power of "Yes". When customers have a (reasonable) request tell them that you can do it. And, always do what you say you are going to do.

Know how and when to apologize. When something goes wrong, apologize. It's easy and customers like it. The customer may not always be right, but the customer should always feel like "they won".

Give more than expected, and give the unexpected. Think of ways to elevate yourself above the competition.

Get regular feedback from your customers. Encourage and welcome suggestions about how you could improve.

Never forget that the customer pays our salary and makes your job possible.

Treat staff well. Employees are your internal customers and need a regular dose of appreciation. Thank them and find ways to let them know how important they are.

And...she included a link to our homepage. This is the best kind of viral compliment a company can hope for!

I asked around the office and found that Glance Account Exec, Mike Walsh, had indeed, helped Trish with a technical issue for a webinar she had scheduled the next day. And he helped her from his home, at 8pm at night. Trish found thisunexpected and highly gratifying, and so she tweeted about it.

I recently read a Bain & Co. study that said that while 80% of senior executives believe they
deliver superior customer service, only 8% of their customers agree. Ouch! At Glance, we are committed to "customer delight", which by definition, goes beyond "customer satisfaction". To us, customer delight means:

living and breathing acompany culture of integrity, service, quality;

empowering employees to solve customer problems on their own; and

givingtrulyunexpected customer service and experiences to everyone we come in contact with.

Customer delight results in enormous goodwill (which quickly turns viral in this age of social media), and customer loyalty, and sets you way apart from your competition (especially important in a crowded field like ours.)

Try it today and your business will reap the benefits. (Oh, and if you need to contact us here at Glance, I hope we continue to find ways to exceed your expectations!)

April 15, 2009

In the old days (last year and beyond), tech support services were judged by how often and inexpensively they could get a person to the customer's site to deploy, train and troubleshoot. Oh, how times have changed.

Today, the sign of a successful tech support operation is never having to be there in person.

Remote support helps the supplier and customer in countless ways, and is now the new standard. To jump in the game successfully, you need a fail-safe, business-class desktop sharing tool like Glance.

The effects of remote support via Glance on your bottom line can be enormous. Consider how few of the hours of an onsite service tech are actually billable. Time is wasted traveling – and the more in-demand the employee, the more time is wasted!

And even if you get the best person to a customer site with no travel expense (say he works next door), he's tied up all day with one client. With remote support that same employee can help a dozen customers in one afternoon without leaving his desk. More productivity, less waste, everyone wins.

Go remote and get more out of your support employees, settle more incidents quicker, enjoy a drop in repeat calls (since issues get solved the first time), save a mint on travel, and improve customer satisfaction.

Please pass the remote control. The world is going remote. In this economy you have no choice but to join them. However, you do have a choice of how. The quickest, simplest, most reliable way is to get Glance.

April 02, 2009

We were glad to hear in her new video that DayLiteHelp.com's customer relations are improved by using Glance.

Cynthia's in Portland, OR, but 95% of her clients are spread out all over the world. In her new video submitted to Glance's Lights, Camera, Savings page, Cynthia maintains that "the only way I can help them is to use Glance, and I use it all day long, every day."

Wow. All day long, every day! Sounds like the difference between a nimble, one-click screen sharing tool like Glance and a complicated web conferencing application like WebEx.

Glance's lightweight, business-class interface allows Cynthia to jump on and off with customers all day long, to "share clients screens, share their mouse, and provide them with real-time training."

"There's just no way I could do this without using the Glance software. So a big thank you to Glance."

Cynthia, there's just no way we could offer Glance's one-click desktop sharing without people like you! So the thanks is all ours. We're happily awarding you with three months of Glance FREE for your wonderful video testimonial.

Same goes for any other Glancers looking to save $150 – simply post a quick video about Glance, and fame, fortune and glory is yours!